Hidden Pain
by Skabooom
Summary: After the showdown on the beach, Banshee finds himself injured, but with everything Charles and the rest of the gang have to deal with, he decides to hide his injury...until an unlikely person notices. Havok/Banshee or Sean/Alex slash. oneshot.


"Hey, you okay?" Alex walked up to Sean on the beach. Moira was helping Hank load Charles into the jet the CIA had sent to pick them up, and Sean was slowly heading towards the jet himself, holding his arm, limping slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sean instantly let go of his arm and turned to Alex, smiling. "Just a little shaken, you know? That was…that was way, way more intense than I thought it would be." He shuddered. "We could have died."

"I know." Alex nodded. "It's kind of a rush, though…ironically, I feel more alive than I have in a really, really long time." He smiled. "And uh…I think I owe you a few apologies."

"You do?" Sean frowned, tilting his head to the side, hiding a wince as his foot stepped on an uneven patch of sand. "Why? I don't think you've done anything at all that merits an apology."

"That's not true." He shook his head. "I've spent all of this time making fun of you, saying your power was lame, saying that you were useless, nerdy, a loser…" he looked down, biting his lip, kicking some of the sand. "And today…well, today you uh…well you saved my life, as I'm sure you know."

"Yeah, to be honest, I was very surprised that you trusted me enough to jump off of that boat, that you trusted me to catch you."

"Did I really have a choice?" Alex laughed. "It was that or die, I'm just lucky that after all of the teasing you still caught me."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have let you fall." Sean smiled. "Maybe you've harassed me a little, but we're on the same team, and that matters more than anything else, right?"

"I guess so." Alex nodded, frowning as he caught Sean's limp again. "Hey, are you sure you're okay? You took a pretty serious fall…"

"Yeah, but you broke it." Sean shrugged. "I'm fine! Oh, and I didn't get the chance to thank you for stopping Angel from spitting acid at me, that…would have been a painful way to go."

"No problem." Alex smiled. "I'm just glad that I managed to keep it in control, you know, without the chest piece."

"Yeah, how did that work?" Sean asked.

"I uh…I don't know," he admitted. "I didn't even think about it or else I probably wouldn't have done it, I would have been so scared that I would have killed you, I just saw her coming for you and I acted."

"Well I'm glad you did." Sean smiled, moving to step into the jet. However, he underestimated the injury in his leg and stumbled forwards.

"Whoa there." Alex reached out, catching him. "You sure you're okay?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah." Sean nodded. "Just clumsy." It was pretty clear to Sean now that he was injured, but he didn't want to worry anyone. With Charles potentially paralyzed his minor injuries in the arm and leg didn't matter at all; he could deal with them by himself.

"It's those long legs." Alex smiled as he sat down. "You're a lanky ginger, bound to fall all over the place."

"Exactly." Sean hid his pain behind a smile as he sat down, relieved to be off of his feet. He avoided rubbing his sore arm, not wanting Alex to ask any more questions, and almost as soon as the jet took off, Sean was asleep.

"Hey, wake up." Alex shook Sean once they landed at the school. "Time to go inside."

"Oh, thanks." Sean unblocked his seatbelt and walked towards the exit. Forgetting about his injured leg, he hopped down. His leg collapsed beneath him with a sickening crack and he fell to the ground with a scream of pain.

"Sean!" Alex jumped out of the jet and sat on the grass beside his friend. "What the hell?"

"My ankle." He whimpered, trying not to cry. "I think…I think it's broken."

"I knew it." Alex sighed, scooping Sean into his arms. "God damnit, Sean! Tell me the next time you're hurt and it won't have to get this bad."

"I'm sorry." Sean sighed. "I just thought I could handle it."

"Yeah, we always think that, and then we break things." Alex sighed, carrying Sean all the way to his room and setting him down on the bed.

"Why are we in your room?" Sean asked.

"Because," Alex stated. "I wanted to be able to keep an eye on you."

"Why do you care?" Sean asked, trying to hold back tears as Alex pulled off his boots and socks, inspecting Sean's ankle.

"Because." Alex shrugged. "You caught me."

"So you've said."

"I don't think you get it, do you…" Alex sat down on the foot of the bed, carefully feeling Sean's ankle before setting it into a temporary splint.

"So explain it to me," Sean stated.

"Alright." Alex nodded, biting his lip. "I've never trusted anyone before, Sean." He looked down. "Not enough to tell a secret to them, not enough to put myself in any kind of danger around them, and definitely not enough to fling myself into the air and feel certain that they'll catch me." He paused. "You're the first person I've ever put that kind of trust in, including myself, and it means a lot to me that you came through for me."

"Hey, that's what I'm here for." He smiled. "Like I said, we're a team, you, me, Hank, Charles…anyone else we may recruit in the future." He shrugged. "You can trust me with anything."

"Anything?" Alex asked.

"Anything at all." Sean nodded. "I won't betray your trust, tell your secret or let you fall."

"Okay." Alex nodded. "Then I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" Sean asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I'm gay," he whispered.

"Yeah…" Sean laughed out loud. "That's not a secret."

"What?" Alex looked up, clearly surprised. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I knew that, I've known that for quite awhile now."

"How the hell did you know?" Alex asked, his eyes widening.

"I have pretty good gaydar, you know, seeing as I'm gay too."

"You…you are?" Alex's eyes got even bigger.

"Yep." Sean smiled. "And you have shitty gaydar."

"Hey, you must get a leg up, I mean you're like human sonar, so why not human gaydar as well?"

"Fair enough." Sean smiled, taking a deep breath to fight the pain in his ankle. "So now that we're both out…" he trailed off.

"Go out with me?" Alex asked. "Friday night."

"I'd love to." Sean smiled.


End file.
